Where No One Has Gone Before

Episode 5 Season 1: Where No One Has Gone Before.

So by now, if you have been following the blog, you know about the plot points i am trying to cover and i am going to go through them rather quickly.

1.Exploration and Necessity: A crackshot engineer has found a way to boost speeds. He will test the engines on the Enterprise approved by Starfleet command.
2.Alien Meetup: A strange alien accompanies the engineer.
3.Crew Endangerment: Passing warp 10 they end up 300 years traveling time away from their own galaxy.
4.Rules and Regulations: They must work with this engineer in order to get home but they are unsure if he can get them home. They must try though.
5.Crisis Navigation: They end up in even a stranger part of the galaxy. Thoughts begin to become reality.
6.Reasoning: They find out with the help of Wesly and Riker that it was not the engineer but the alien who caused the boost in propulsion. They talk to "The Traveler".
7.Necessary Problem: Traveler is dieing. If he dies then they will not get back.
8. Trickery:
9.Peaceful and Beneficial Resolution: Wesley Crusher becomes an Ensign due to the Traveler telling Picard that they boy is special and needs to be encouraged.

Trickery is empty because there is no real problem that could be solved by outwitting any opponent. You could say that the Traveler telling Picard about Wesley being the "Mozart" of space time and propulsion butt that wouldn't seem too accurate for what the functions represent. 

There are some interesting things about this episode though.

It becomes Quixotic for one. Once the thoughts of the crew can become reality, they start having episodes that come only from their minds. The concept of thought turning into reality is rather interesting because it infers that reality is as mailable as fiction. The Traveler talks about how the world around them isn't ready for concept that thoughts, space and time are not as separate as we think.

This is an interesting point that is made by the episode. A phenomenological world isn't as implausible as some think. Fiction has indeed been responisble for some idea's and concepts that exist today. Here is a brief and, not to lie, dull article on some of the concepts of science fiction becoming science fact.

This concept that the show tackles shows us how meta fictional Star Trek can be. In essence it is refering to itself as becoming a model for plausible future technologies. Very cool. Also the world of thought becoming the world of fact in Star Trek blurs boundaries that are enforced on a text that relies wholly on realism. Science Fiction is a genre that always transgresses this border, however, as seen in this episode, TNG transgresses it farther than many others. The introduction of a part of the universe where thought becomes fact, the holodeck, and Q are all examples of how this series struggles with fiction and reality (all of Q's alternate realities are real but they are concepts created from his mind. Q is the ultimately powerful author with the ability to create worlds on a whim).

We will see in later episodes issues of fiction and reality being explored and expanded upon. I will label all of these with "Dilemma". Certainly any fiction that deals with the problems of fiction and philosophy is experiencing a dilemma at its core.

It can be strange that a prime time science fiction show would deal with some of these issues. Yet TNG does, though in small doses. Certainly we will have to stay on our toes and tease out some of the concepts being delt with and expressed. It should be challenging.

I will most likely post summaries of larger concepts i explore at the end of each season. That way, once everything is all collected and noted, we can have a discussion of major themes throughout the season and talk about how many ideas expressed and formed become part of the larger scheme.

Thank you for reading.

Those Damned Ferengi!

Episode Six of Season One

First Notes:

A good scientist knows that, when a hypothesis is going really, really well, something must be off. This episode played perfectly into my scheme of nine major plot points. This leads me to believe a few things:

1. My scheme is well designed for these first episodes, however we must still be in the exposition of the series
2. Perhaps the points are too broad and thus, need to be whittled down to a smaller spectrum with stricter requirements
3.All of these episodes may be by the same author, and though that should not account for everything, it could account for the use of a similar formula in the construction of these episodes.

I truely know that this formula will need amendments or will fail. However it works for now. I don't like the idea of quoting future episodes from memory to destroy my analysis because, well, the memory is a tricky thing. So for now i will leave it alone. However i am taking the success of the 9 points of these episodes with a grain of salt.

Other Notes: We are surely in expository episodes. More allusions in this episode to Riker's American Cowboy history, Picard's french background, and Data's encyclopedia traits. We don't know these characters yet, but we are learning. Geordi officially takes the role of chief of engineering in this episode (though he still wears red).


The Meat:

1. Exploration and Necessity: They meet the Ferengie for two reasons. One is a power converter they removed from Gamma Tari Four, the second is that they know little about the Ferengi and want the encounter.

2. Alien Meet Up: This is an easy fit. It is strange because they don't actually meet the Ferengi face to face until they are on the planet. However they view their ship and are interaction with them regardless.

3. Crew Endangerment: They are having a power drain because of them trying to break free from the forcefield that the ship supposedly puts on them. They need to get away or they will lose power? This is weird because it makes it seem like the ship runs on an alternator, like a car, and without movement they lose power. Also the files of the Enterprise seem to be rifled through.

4. Rules and Regulations: Picard contemplates attacking the Ferengi to break free however Troi says that they should use diplomacy instead. This is a small part but it fits the scheme. Usually in the Rules and Regulations stage they will choose the non violent option to lead to Crisis Navigation.

5. Crisis Navigation: They try speaking with the Ferengi and realize their ship is immobilized as well. They find that the planet poses a mystery and try to cooperate with the Ferengi to investigate the mystery. The Ferengi resist which leads to...

6.Reasoning: Through Picard's skill of negotiations they have the Ferengi agree to beam three science team members down to the planet. Riker beams down with all the important officers.

7. Necessary Problem: This is a compound function of the story , perhaps the most sustained. The Ferengi are hostile, but then The Guardian of the outpost is also hostile. The Guardian of the Tkon wants to destroy them both.

8. Trickery: "Deception is the way of the Human" -Ferengi officer. I know, right. What a quote. Riker having some sort of strange preternatural instinct does not lie to the Tkon Guardian, but instead stays honest, perhaps this is more about his character. Meanwhile he lets the Ferengi say whatever they want without stopping them. As the Ferengi dig themselves deeper we realize the Gaurdian is telepathic. Thus he finds Riker agreeable and the Ferengi barbaric.

9. Peaceful Beneficial Resolution: The Guardian says "Normally i would have destroyed all of you and your ships" but he likes Riker and asks him "Should i destroy them (The Ferengi)". Riker like a good boyscout says "No, then they would learn nothing". Very belittling of the Ferengi but in the end the most peaceful of resolutions. The only "bad" thing they do is send the Chinese fingercuffs over to the Ferengi ship; the galactic equivalent of ordering a pizza with anchovies to someones house.

Frighteningly this episode fits the rubric. The Functions work like clock work. I was very suspicious of them as well but they fell in line. Perhaps there are more functions i could add but at the rate of these functions it seems that a major plot event occurs about once every five minutes. That seems about right. So far the episodes are rather formulaic. I suppose that is to be expected from many shows. But as the story becomes more complex, and the characters have more of their own episodes, the set of functions will have to change.


Funny Items:

Poor Worf is turned down in ideas about two to three times this episode including him saying "For battle come to me!" Riker, of course, shoots him down.

The Ferengi's M.O. is to use whips, have their women naked, attack first and make up a profitable story later, and do everything for profit. A whole race of Gordon Geckos. Donald Trump made alien (except the Ferenegi have no hair)

The ship magically has a power drain. This never happens. What a weak plot device.

Picard suggest that Wesley Crusher die like a man, without a sedative, further proving that the only thing keeping him from shacking with Bev is the damnable Will Wheaton.

Data, capable of insane amounts of knowledge about human history, slang, and behaviors (not to mention crazy science) gets tuck in a Chinese finger trap. Why didn't they try these on the Borg huh?

Alright, that is it. Thank you for reading. Will keep updating. See you in the episode "Where No One Has Gone Before"

Code Of Honor

I wonder what Edward Said would say about this?

Code of Honor is, at first, an offensive blunder that tries to recapture the glorious decade of sixties racial tolerance as it related to the Kirk series. We are made aware of the aliens being close to human. However the monotone color to offset them from the crew as well as garb reminiscent of a movie about the middle east from the fifties does not lend itself well to a series that tries to set itself up as more cerebral. Indeed this episode is full of poor written dialog. ponderous acting, and offensive overtones that mix Eddie Murphie's Coming to America with the Flash Gordon movie from the early eighties. However, this is not important to me, because i am not reviewing the episode, but analysing it structurally.

So here is how the main plot sequences play out.

1. Exploration and Necessity: Vaccine for a plague on a Federation Planet
2. Alien Meet Up: Meeting Lu-tan
3. Crew Endangerment: Tasha Yar taken
4. Rules and Regulations: Prime directive forces Picard to play by their rules (code of honor)
5. Crises Navigation: Explore the alien threat, goes to planet to meet with Lu0tan
6.Reasoning: Politely tries to get Yar back
7.Necessary Problem: Yar needs to fight to the death
8. Trickery: Scheme gets Yar back and punishes Lu-tan
9. Peaceful Beneficial Resolution: Taking Lu-tan out of power the Enterprise gets what it needs and moves on.

There are nine main plot structure points. The show blunders through hues and shades of bad writing to deepen and round out the characters but, for our purposes in this plot analysis, there are nine. The goal of these nine (of which perhaps more will show) is to create a basis for a structural analysis of the show by trying to see how these plot points change throughout the series and from episode to episode. This model is based partly on Vladamir Propp's model he used on Fairytales (Props to Propp yo).

So lets see how this all plays out. Lets compare the structure of this episode to the one we just watched, "The Naked Now"

1.Exploration and Necessity: Exploring the star that a science craft from Starfleet was exploring they need to solve the mystery of deaths and actions.

This function fits, there is exploring and necessity. Certainly this is a vague plot point but, it is one necessary to the series. Necessity can be described as any condition that requires direct Enterprise involvment.

2. Alien Meet Up: An unknown virus infects the ship

Is that a stretch? I don't think so. Alien can mean anything foreign and, certainly, the virus is foreign. It is made apparent to us that the virus is very foreign later in the episode when the original cure doesn't work.

3. Crew Endangerment: Virus spreads and causes the crew to act irrationally, leading up to Wesley messing up the engine room.

Many times, in many episodes it is the whole of the ship that is endangered, but, for this function, it is if any of the crew is endangered.

4. Rules and Regulations: This is one that perhaps does not apply to this episode and since no direct part of the episode flashes to mind i will not try to stretch.

The rules and regulations function is one that usually serves to show how and why the enterprise cannot take an easy way out. Usually they are stuck to diplomacy or to some aspect of Starfleet that will not let them take an easy out.

5. Crisis Navigation: Riker tries to find out the mysterious disease. Beverly Crushser searches for a cure. Engineers look for a way into Main Engineering.

Navigation of crew endangerment can be something such as gathering facts, reconnaissance, or the beginnings of solving a problem.

6. Reasoning: Picard tries to talk to Wesley to get control back. The old cure is used on Geordi.

Reasoning is the part when solutions are tried and fail. The failure of the reasoning function is what leads to the necessity of trickery. Reasoning can work, but usually doesn't because it is the obvious answer.

7. Necessary Problem: The star explodes and threatens to destroy the Enterprise.

The Necessary Problem is one that adds tension and makes the original problem presented in crew endangerment more prodominant. This function makes it so that the problem must be solved or we risk permanent consequences.

8. Trickery: Despite Wesley they get access to main engineering and try to manually take control back.

Trickery is necessary because Reasoning fails. This is when the crew's intellect is showcased and usually some miraculous way is provided to escape crew endangerment.

9. Peaceful Beneficial Resolution: Wesley, who cause much of the problems, solves them and shows his worth as a young man. Furthermore Data shows capabilities.

The PBR (wow i didn't even realize that, awesome) is one that, not only solves the episodes issues, but provides some sort of benifical respons. In "Code of Honor" it is the vaccine and peace with the alien species, in "The Naked Now" it is Wesley's reputation that gets a boost. It closes the episode and provides closure as well.


So what did Lu-tan show us? He showed us that, though there is a lot of smoke screen action in these episodes there may also be a underlying deep structure that we can analyze. I will look at all the episodes after this with this structure in mind, and will analyze them accordingly as well. Since we won't have to go through the functions again, i can analyze other aspects in a fuller capacity. Also it should be know that these functions will be flexible. They will grow and maybe change and become more concise as i go through the episodes and see more of the deep structure of STNG.

Thanks for reading.

The Naked Now

The Naked Now

Well here we are, in the episode "The Naked Now". Firstly, it is directly a sequel of the "Naked Time" in the original Trek. As fun as it would be to compare the two, including the iconic Sulu sword fighting scenes, that will not be happening. There is plenty enough in this episode to help us understand where the series starts, and how much it will grow throughout it's seasons.

This episode, by far, is one that is introducing an older story arc from a different season just to flesh out the characters. Yes it seems cool, and yes it ties us in with the original series but, despite that that may be the intent, it is not the effect. The effect, rather, is a setting up of certain characters with faults and skills and to basically do a show and tell of how this new Enterprise works. So, since i have said the analysis here rests on characters, and perhaps their structural functions, lets list and examine.

Data

So here we have Data. A fresh new character and, besides Worf (this is debatable but shut up) the only one of his type within the entirety of the franchise (as it comes out chronologically here in the 80's). Besides the constant and annoying reminders we are given that he is an android (such as grammar corrections and references) we are also given that he is in "perfect health" by the doctor.

Yet Data has limitations. The problem with this young series is that the writers don't quite know those limitations yet, as we can see in this episode. On one hand Riker says to Data that looking up records of an incident similar to the one on the Tsiolkovsky ( a pioneer in astronautic theory as well as a rocket scientist, thanks Wikipedia) "ought to be easy for someone written up in bio-mechanical texts". And it should shouldn't it. In fact Data is a thinking machine and he is reading the screen at many times the speed of any normal human. So why couldn't they find the files sooner? If i asked you, dear internet reader, to look up incidents of people showering with their cloths on aboard a ship, you would find things rather quickly using Google or Yahoo or whatever. But Data, a thinking machine, a intellectual and physical giant, using a computer also so advanced its beyond our comprehension, cannot find this information in a quicker than timely fashion. Boo.

What this illustrates is that Data's abilities are a plot device to the max. His abilities and limitations often will form plots or be used to make plots go forward. This happens again at the end of the episode when Data will not be able to put the iso-linear chips in quickly enough. Data is, follow me here, able to be plugging these complicated chips in at a crazy speed, but also, at the same time, able to calculate with limited information the chunk of star that will come and destroy the ship? give me a break that this robot couldn't find an instance of showering in clothing with the aid of possibly two search engines in enough time to recognize what was going on. Down to the core, Data does grow as a character, but he is essentially a tool for plot. His abilities will falter where plot seeks another character to come forward, and will be amazing when he solves the problems.

Also, sex with Yar and human emotions while under the influence of a disease that effects water molecules (despite Data's "if you prick me do i not bleed" crap i don't really think he would be effected by this disease)? Give me a break.

Wesley Crusher
This little shit is just a plot device. He creates two devices. A portable tractor beam and a recording device the equivalent of spy gear from the 90's. Both that allow him to bring the ship into jeopardy.

First, he has the ship's assistant chief engineer ask him how he made a force field...

Really?
Realllllllly? Are you saying to me that, a person, who is the assistant chief engineer, on the flagship of an intergalactic federation of planets that has its own academy that is super hard to get in to and weeds out people using stress tests that are the equivilant of the BAR with a gun pointed at your head, doesn't know how to make a simple portable force field?!?!?!

I give up.

Or that, the whole ship of geniuses, even under the influence of a disease mimicking "alcohol" (more like ecstasy in the episode if you ask me) can't find a way around one force field. Or that there aren't fail safes?

Basically ridiculous. And Wes Crusher only gets more ridiculous but that can wait.

Riker

Now i know some people don't really like Riker, i say poo on them. Many people have told me he is a a failure as a playboy and doesn't live up to the shadow of Kirk. Well you are right, but Riker is not like that. In fact this episode gives the best account of character in Riker. He shows that he is resourceful, intelligent and strong in willpower.

Riker knows what needs to be done to save the ship and he does it. He is constantly trying to fix the problem and, if the disease is indeed like alcohol, the man holds his liquor damn well.

This episode sets up Riker as heroic and capable. He cares more about the ship. Also their is a moment of character between him and Dianna, which goes on through the whole series. Basically this is the one character who gains depth through this episode, without the scathing idiocies of reducing his attributes to simple plot functions.

Picard and Bev CrusherI won't lie, at this point i am running out of steam when it comes to the analysis of the characters as presented by this episode. But we need to analyze these two.

Picard: He is Picard, the same Picard he was at Farpoint, serious, intelligent, and strong. We do see a bit of him drunk and acting like a boy, a boy, not a drunk man but a boy, when talking to Crusher but that is about it. He is stern with Wesley the way through, and as serious as ever.

Bev: She is a strong female character for this show. She is not as cheesy as Dianna and seems to have more agency. Though she wants to put it down on Picard in a hard way, she does come up with the solution to the problem. Also we see her relationship with the captain goes deeper than expected. She, like Riker, is show with good poise. She controls herself (even though she makes sexual advances but hey, the women hasn't gotten any since her husband died, i can't blame her). This is funny though:

"Of course we don't have time for that sort of thing"
"What sort of thing?"
"Oh god would i love to show you"

I don't think Picard would say no, no lie. Also right after this exchange he makes some sort of weird throat clearing sound and becomes suddenly infected by the disease. Worf tells Riker the captain is infected and well, the show goes on.

Summary:
Basically this is a bad episode. It is one where the plot is very easy to determine and is mostly pushed forward by the inadequacies of the crew. It doesn't paint anyone but Riker and the minimal Worf in a good light. It shows that, despite the vast dominions of enemies the Enterprise will face, a boy with science fair projects could defeat them. We can hope to get better focuses on character later, but we will have to see.

Encounter at Farpoint Station

So, this is a doozy. A hefty two part episode clocking in around and hour and a half. A great amount is exposition, however this episode does it well. Farpoint may be full of bad acting and cliche motifs as is most of these first three seasons, but structurally speaking it is one of the better episodes.

First to talk about the opening sequence is so eloquent. We start at the sun, sol, our sun, and move outwards following each planet until we reach the Enterprise. So we know that we are leaving earth and on a trajectory of leaving the known, leaving our solar system. Already these daring space explorers have gone farther than anyone in modernity, and thus it makes since they will go farther to where "no man has gone before". We get the credits and the enterprise going through warp. We, in the eighties, are awed by the sight of such marvelous special effects.

Now to the episode:

Picard is introduced first. A strong silhouette back-lighted. He informs us that Farpoint station is on the border of the unknown. We already receive a few ques that this is not Kirk. He is not fancy like Kirk. He is not dashing and handsome with hair perfect and flaxen. No, Picard is seasoned. A veteran of starfleet. We already know that we will be covering new territory and nothing that was covered in the previous series from the sixties ( we hope HAH!).

The crew gets introduced in two segments.

The first group is Picard, Data, Tasha, and Worf. The Second is Riker, Le Forge, Crusher(s). You could say O'Brien is introduced here but he doesn't become important until later.

Data is introduced as our non-vulcan vulcan.

Yet this duel segment introduction teaches us a few things. One is that the crew is going to be segmented, which it is. We have the serious characters: the security chief, lieutenant commander, and the captain) and then the nonchalant characters, the supporting cast who often offers a bit of humanity to the super science of the others: the doctor, the engineer, and the first in command.

Okay, so really Data/Le forge are actual foils for each other and we will explore that throughout the series.

Oh did i forget Dianna Troi? Well she is forgettable at the beginning. She is the seventh wheel in this case. More importantly, she often bridges the gap between the two separate character types. She is emotional, but in a scientific way. She is the bridge between objectivity and subjectivity. "How are you feeling?" is no longer a question in a realm of opinion but one of science. Therefore Troi is in her own realm here.

So really,the dividing of the crew and their separate introduction is a boon to the whole show and series. It shows us exactly who fits in which category. Surely throughout the series things change, nothings fluid, but these are actually pretty good categories when it helps in understanding the series.

So how about Farpoint Station?

The Q is introduced. This is a strange device, bringing in a deus ex machina right at the beginning. Q ultimately is a function of plot. He can make happen what normally could not happen. Let us leave this for now.

Farpoint isn't really a contest for the crew's morality. There are people obviously in the wrong and a three mnute montage of two jellyfish looking things touching hands. However, like i said, it brings the crew together, it shows us the holodeck and it shows us how the crew will interact. The most lucrative interaction is between Picard and Beverly Crusher. There is so much story for the little discourse they give. So that's exciting.

The exposition in the episode is excellent, but the episode itself is not as mysterious as it pretends to be. But there is so much more to come. Next episode is, the naked now!

Welcome Aboard

What this blog is:

This is a blog devoted to the critical literary analysis of Star Trek The Next Generation. I know, you're thinking: "Dear god why????"
And you may be right. Many episodes, I wont lie, of STTNG are not really worth the trouble of a critical analysis. Nor are many episodes literary in any way, especially in the start of the series. However why the fuck not?

I intend for this blog to be a good in depth look at STTNG because, well, i like the show and some of it does merit analysis. Also i want to make fun of it as much as possible. It definitely merits that, especially between seasons 1-3. But, truth be told, I really love the show. I grew up with it and I still think it can be pretty bad ass.

I will try to organize all the posts as well as possible. All will be in order as i watch the series in order. I will watch a episode a week and comment on it. I would love comments as you may or may not agree with me. If you have a favorite episode, awesome, let me know, lets start a dialogue. I may go off on tangents, so suck it.

Welcome.